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Forbes says we lie and cheat

Fred Oliveira on October 28, 2005

In quite possibly the most despicable article I’ve read this year, Forbes calls bloggers part of an “online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies” (quoted from this article by Daniel Lyons). Talk about media sensationalism. Lets think about this for a little while. In fact, allow me to quote a whole paragraph from the same article:

Blogs started a few years ago as a simple way for people to keep online diaries. Suddenly they are the ultimate vehicle for brand-bashing, personal attacks, political extremism and smear campaigns. It’s not easy to fight back: Often a bashing victim can’t even figure out who his attacker is. No target is too mighty, or too obscure, for this new and virulent strain of oratory. Microsoft has been hammered by bloggers; so have CBS, CNN and ABC News, two research boutiques that criticized IBM’s Notes software, the maker of Kryptonite bike locks, a Virginia congressman outed as a homosexual and dozens of other victims–even a right-wing blogger who dared defend a blog-mob scapegoat.

I ask one thing and one thing alone: are we talking about the same blogosphere, here? Or better yet, let me go for a straight comparison: magazines, run by millions and millions of dollars, started quite some years ago as a simple way for people to read interesting, informative material. Suddenly they are the ultimate vehicle for sensationalist marketing, now that old media is threatened by millions of people doing what you might call “personal journalism”. No target is too mighty, or too obscure, for this old but strong strain of oratory.

My best bet is that there were no other terror stories left to cover, so you might as well pick the next best shot by aiming for the major threat to biased journalism - webloggers. And the funny thing is by doing that, they also target Google, Yahoo and many of what you could call “Web 2.0″ companies - companies that enable this new kind of media and content publishing.

I’m sorry to see Forbes go this far down my respect meter. The rest of the blogosphere is talking about it, I don’t need to echo the voices of everyone else. But please, Forbes, think before you post.. err, print.


Comments on this post

I’m part of a lynch mob at Bleikamp.com

[...] Via WeBreakStuff: [...]

Sam

Part of me thinks this article was just a way to get the blogosphere to talk about Forbes Magazine. Is that bad?

Fred

When they do it by trying to trash the blogosphere in the eyes of the corporate businessman that reads Forbes? Yes, it is not only bad, it is slander.

Simon

Isn’t blogs about YOUR opinion and what you think about something? It doesn’t have to necesary be true (it should, but it may not be true). I think if we think like forbes, Fred should put on every post he write, I think: Web 2.0 is so good or Fred thinks that Web 2.0 is so good.

basement.org

Bloggers to Forbes Magazine: Please Don’t Blog

So the blogosphere is all up in arms today about a Forbes magazine article that likens the blog community to a rabid, bloodthirsty mob (or something). It’s definitely the hot topic today. Stepping back a bit, I get the sense…

mathewingram.com/work » Blog Archive » Revenge of the blog-o-sphere

[...] If Forbes magazine was looking for some attention from the Internet, they certainly got what they were asking for. Unfortunately, it isn’t coming because of some fine-quality, well-written journalism, but because of what bloggers are taking as a drive-by-shooting style rant about how bloggers are dirty, rotten, lying scumbags. The piece by Daniel Lyons is more or less about a battle between one man whose company and stock were hammered by a blogger who pretended to be someone else, but along the way Lyons casts some aspersions against bloggers as a whole. Reaction (not surprisingly) has come from far and wide, including Dan Gillmor at Bayosphere, Steve Rubel at MicroPersuasion, the guys over at We Break Stuff and Paul Kedrosky at Infectious Greed. Is it a deliberate attempt by Forbes to get some coverage in the blog-o-sphere — even if it’s negative? Perhaps. Or it could just be that publisher Malcolm Forbes got a bee in his bonnet about blogs for some reason. Meanwhile, Chris Pirillo notes sarcastically that magazines also suffer from some of the same problems. [...]

Sam

“Yes, it is not only bad, it is slander.”

(sorry, to clarify, I mean’t is it bad that I think that.)

Chris Griffin

Bloggers have bashed Microsoft, CBS, CNN, ABC News, the maker of Kryptonite bike locks. and your point is?

It’s not without reason that these companies get bashed. We all know why Microsoft gets bashed, CBS, CNN, ABC (what about FOX?) get bashed for going for ratings above all, the Krpytonite locks company I believe made the locks you can open with a cheap bic pen. I don’t understand why they don’t deserve it.

Maybe if we bash them more often they will get their shit together. Not likely, but we aren’t under communist rule and we can say whatever the hell we want to say. Companies can no longer make crappy products without getting backlash on the internet. No corporation can get away with anything anymore without a blogger that has a 10,000+ readers saying something about it. I think we evened the playing field by blogging. We are sticking it to the man that has been able cover up their foul-ups in the past, but not anymore.

The English Guy » Forbes’ Blogger Bashing

[...] the Technorati search results. Like this post for Del.icio.us, Furl, Spurl? Trackback •  Posted in life, blog, musings, politics on Friday October 28, 3:35 pm  [...]

Mean Dean

Despicable? Yes, delightfully ripe for parody? You bet, as I spoofed their cover with my own.

Kidding aside, I think you’re right with your terror remark - with no real news to report, they gin-up a story.

Shabby - even more so as it is Forbes, a periodical I _once_ respected.

Pete Cashmore

I thought maybe the article was a parody - the hyperbole is hilarious. But should we really get all riled up about this? Perhaps we should just get back down to work.

Nick D

Check out this podcast interview with Steve Forbes. I am not sure if it was done before or after the article, but in this interview, Forbes seems to contradict what the article is saying.

Nick D

It may help if i include the link.
http://www.podtech.net/?p=199

Chris Blow

Anyone notice that Forbes actually has a 4-day-old blog?

http://blogs.forbes.com/digitalrules/

The Corporate Stiffs Are Afraid Of Bloggers at connecting*the*dots

[...] UPDATE: Frederico is upset about this as well. And I found another one of these "corporate boys are scared as hell" articles. Check out The Mercury News article, "An Internet fed mostly by amateurs is frightening." These hacks didn’t even treat the title correctly. Amateurs! Ha. [...]

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